Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

47 Issue of load line certificates and effect thereof.

(1) Where a British load line ship registered in the United Kingdom has been surveyed and marked in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act and complies with the conditions of assignment to the extent required in her case by those provisions, there shall be issued to the owner of the ship on his application and on payment of the prescribed fee—

(a) in the case of an international load line ship, a load line certificate hereafter in this Act referred to as " a Load Line Convention certificate "; and

(b) in the case of a local load line ship, a load line certificate hereafter in this Act referred to as " a United Kingdom load line certificate. "

(2) Every such certificate shall be issued either by the Board of Trade or by such other person as may be authorised in that behalf by the Board, and shall be issued in such form and manner as may be prescribed by the load line rules, and those rules shall make such provision with respect to Load Line Convention certificates as appears to the Board to be necessary, having regard to the provisions of Rules IV and LXVUI of the Load Line Convention, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article thirteen of that Convention.

(3) Any such certificate issued by the Board of Trade may be signed on behalf of the Board by any person authorised by the Board for the purpose, and a certificate purporting to be so signed shall be admissible in evidence in like manner as if it had been signed by one of the persons mentioned in section seven hundred and nineteen of the principal Act.

(4) The Board of Trade may request the Government of a country to which the Load Line Convention applies to issue a Load Line Convention certificate in respect of a Load Line Convention ship registered in the United Kingdom, and a certificate issued in pursuance of such a request and containing a statement that it has been so issued shall have effect for the purpose of this Part of this Act as if it had been issued by the Board.

(5) Where a load line certificate, issued in pursuance of this section and for the time being in force, is produced in respect of a ship, the ship shall, for the purpose of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, be deemed to have been surveyed as required by those provisions, and, if the deck-line and load lines on the ship are of the number and description required by the load line rules and the position of the deck-line and load lines corresponds with the position specified in the certificate, the ship shall be deemed to be marked as required by those provisions.